When Andrew W.K. isn’t head-banging, screaming or partying, he’s signing autographs.
After his Saturday night set at Howard’s Club H came to an end, dozens of moshers dusted themselves off and lined up for W.K.’s signature. But they got more.
W.K. — a giant, fearsome animal on stage — turned his snarl into a smile at Howard’s bar, speaking with every single fan, taking photos and writing multiple-paragraph autographs until 5:30 a.m.
Every note was different, too, aside from the closer: “Party Hard!!!” — a reference to the song that made him popular.
Late-night autograph sessions are common at W.K.’s concerts. When he played on the Ozzfest tour this past year, he spent up to 11 hours a night signing tickets, albums, T-shirts and more.
“There were a few nights like that,” W.K. said. In those notes he leaves advice about living for each day: “If you wait long enough and it doesn’t come around it is time to stop waiting and start doing it!!!” he wrote in one autograph. “When you find it you will wish that you had stopped your waiting a long time ago!!!”
His fans — like Ty Owen, who drove three and a half hours to see him — take the positive, good-time messages in his music to heart.
“It’s all about fun, man,” said Owen, of Lancaster, Ohio. “It’s pure adrenaline. If stuff in your life sucks, you go to a concert, and it just goes away.”
For W.K. to include fans in the show is common. At Howard’s, he lifted one fan to his shoulders toward the end of his set. Owen attended a show in Columbus and told some of W.K.’s crew that it would be cool if the band played “Make Sex,” one of their early songs. They played it. The band didn’t stop there, according to Owen.
“They pulled me and my friends up on stage to sing the song,” he said.
Though W.K. keeps his roots with fans he has had a taste of the big time. Not only has his song “Party Hard” received steady play on radio and MTV, but he is also on tour with Aerosmith. On nights Aerosmith takes off, W.K. plays smaller venues like Howard’s.
Playing at a small club has its advantages, according to W.K.’s bassist, Gregg R.
“Club shows are a lot more intimate,” he said. “We get a better reaction with the crowd right in our faces.”
But there’s something to be said for performing in an arena, too.
“You get to feed off the masses of people, the huge light show and sound,” he added.
Regardless of his success, W.K. stops at nothing to please his fans.
When a show of his in Madison, Wis. was canceled, he took names of all the fans who showed up without knowing, and read their names at his next show in apology, according to Teresa Collier, who has sold merchandise at his shows for the past two weeks.
“He doesn’t take his fans for granted,” Collier said. “He’s definitely not like anyone else in a band I’ve ever seen.”
He works hardest to please his fans on stage.
W.K. leapt, howled and, most of all, got sweaty to get the crowd going. He even dove into the crowd.
But his stage persona hides his modesty: “I don’t sign private parts,” W.K said. “It’s disrespectful.”
And all of this comes from a guy who writes songs like “Party Till You Puke.”
